Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Synopsis: (From Library Journal)
Most of this work deals with non-Europeans, but Diamond's thesis sheds light on why Western civilization became hegemonic: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Those who domesticated plants and animals early got a head start on developing writing, government, technology, weapons of war, and immunity to deadly germs.

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Review: I've never actually sat down with a print copy of this book; instead, I've listened to it on a Playaway, a special kind of dedicated MP3 player with an audiobook preloaded on it. These little guys are great for anyone who wants all of the benefits of a digital audiobook with none of the hassle of downloading it and loading it to a player themselves, so they're very popular with some of our patrons who've heard great things about this technology but don't necessarily know how to use it as well as they'd like.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was the very first Playaway I'd listened to, although I'm an enthusiastic consumer of audiobooks in general (the iTunes store and Podiobooks.com are both great places to look!), and I thought it was great. The narrator hits the perfect note to keep this book interesting; while I have begun reading hundreds of nonfiction books, the list of those I've actually completed can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand, so the fact that this book could hold on to my limited attention span should tell you something. I also thought it was very well written in general, although I'm not sure if I'd have made it all the way through the printed book.

That would have been a shame, too, because Mr. Diamond makes some very interesting points about why certain cultures have been historically dominant to others, and why society is structured the way that it is today. Whether you agree with his points is up to you, but it's very substantial food for thought nonetheless.